The invention relates to agricultural machines and particularly to apparatus for planting seeds. It will be understood that, while the invention has particular application to apparatus intended to be used in planting grain on large tracts of land, that it also has application to apparatus for planting other types of seed even on relatively small parcels of land.
Apparatus commonly used for planting such large tracts of land typically includes a first plurality of plows or shovels disposed at equal intervals along a first line or rank and a second plurality of plows or shovels disposed at the same equal intervals along a second line or rank which is parallel to the first line. The apparatus is moved by a tractor or other apparatus in a direction which is perpendicular to the first and second rank to produce seed trenches or rows which are generally parallel and spaced a uniform distance apart. That distance is, more specifically, one half the distance between adjacent plows or shovels in either the first or second line. This follows since the plows or shovels in the first line are offset axially from the plows or shovels in the other line, a distance which is one half the distance between adjacent plows or shovels.
Seeds are customarily deposited in the seed trenches or rows in the ground formed by the shovels or plows and thereafter they are tamped in place by a separate wheel which is provided for each plow or shovel so that all of the seeds deposited in the row generated by that plow or shovel are properly tamped in place. A difficulty commonly encountered in seeding in this manner is that loam turned up by the trailing line of shovels tends to fall into the seed trenches generated on either side thereof by the leading shovels. The practical effect is that seed, deposited thereafter in the seed trench in which loam has been deposited, will not be planted at the desired depth. This will reduce the yield from the seed and also adversely effect the utilization of the land in which the seed is being deposited.
The above noted problems may be reduced by planting at a slower rate. This is not a satisfactory solution since maximum productivity is desirable.
It is an object of the invention to provide apparatus which will consistently plant seeds in a substantially uniform manner so that the yield from a given quantity of seed is maximized and also the utilization of the land in which the seed is planted is also maximized.
It is another object of the invention to provide apparatus which will permit faster seeding operations than are possible with conventional apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide apparatus which may be easily installed on existing planting apparatus.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide apparatus which is simple to use.
Still another object of the invention is to provide apparatus which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.